From a lone bison gazing at the viewer with sternness verging on disdain to the Statue of Liberty surrounded by the glow of flames and a quote from the Bible, the chalk murals Stetson’s studio art students painted on the side of the Elusive Grape building in Downtown DeLand responded thoughtfully to the theme for the first-ever Color on Main exhibition, America 250.

The public art project, presented Sept. 26-27, coincided with the annual Craft Show, which brings hundreds of artists, makers and visitors to DeLand every year. While fair attendees bustled up and down Woodland Boulevard, checking out the booths lining the street, a group of eight current Hatters and one recent Stetson graduate got to work, each painting a 3-by-5-foot chalk mural on the Elusive Grape building wall along East Indiana Avenue.

The nine murals will remain there for those interested to admire and engage with for the foreseeable future — pending heavy rain, which might wash them away.

Scheduled for later in the fall is a pop-up show at the Museum of Art of DeLand, where the nine Hatters will have a chance to speak to the audience about their murals during an art walk-style event.

“Color on Main gives students the opportunity to dive headfirst into the professional world of public art, an in-demand and often lucrative field,” said Luca Molnar, MFA, an associate professor of studio art who coordinated with the MainStreet DeLand Association to make this event happen. “They are being asked to design work with a community audience in mind based on a theme set by an outside call for art, just like professional muralists do. This project will help students build their portfolios, connect with regional art professionals, engage with the local community, and add both a public art project and museum exhibition to their CVs.”

The idea for Color on Main came from Chalk FIT at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York. The school’s annual public art tradition started in 2013 and gives senior illustration students the opportunity to put up chalk murals on the outer walls of school buildings in the heart of New York City on yearly themes. 

Jayson LaFortune, FIT alumnus and an event coordinator for MainStreet DeLand, wanted to bring that chance to Stetson. “I always loved seeing the school use its own walls as a way to showcase student work and give the public a chance to experience their creativity. When I came back to my hometown of DeLand, I wanted to find a way to bring a little piece of that experience here,” he said. “With Stetson being such an important part of the DeLand community, reaching out to the Studio Art department felt like a natural fit. My hope is that Color on Main can give students another opportunity to share their work outside of the classroom while also bringing something new and creative to Downtown DeLand.”

Students involved expressed their excitement for the chance to present their work to the local community. Robby Seneca, a sophomore studio art major and Navy veteran, said, “I thought it sounded pretty interesting to have a mural in Downtown DeLand.” Born and raised in DeLand, he chose to depict a heron lounging in Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge in homage to his hometown as the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary. 

Lany Hargrove, explaining that she wants her art to eventually have a global reach, said, “I’m excited to see different people come out and enjoy my art and enjoy other people’s art as well, because we need that. We need that here — a lot more representation.” Hargrove is a junior studio art student and a LaValle scholar. Her mural is a portrait of the Statue of Liberty à la Roy Lichtenstein’s comic-inspired pop art.

Part of the challenge for the students was finding a balance between following the theme set by the outside call for art — America 250 with no explicitly political imagery — while staying true to their artistic vision. Bea Bogstad, a sophomore studio art major, initially struggled with the prompt but ultimately decided to paint a woman getting a tattoo of an alligator gar, a fish native to Florida, to show the beauty and importance of the DeLand arts district.

“It’s extremely important that we focus on the beauty of how much of a cultural melting pot America is and how important that it stays a melting pot and how important immigrants are to this country to keep culture moving,” Bogstad said.

Winter Stahl, a junior majoring in molecular and cellular biology, also chose an animal as her mural’s subject — a bison, to be exact. “I specifically chose the bison because during the founding of America, a lot of bison were killed for the genocide of Native people,” she said, adding, “The bison population is growing back. It’s not what it used to be, but we actually have a bison population here in Florida in Paynes Prairie, so it’s also a Floridian thing.”

On the students’ works, Molnar commented, “A lot of them are really thinking critically about American history and have interesting perspectives. I think a lot of them are forward-looking. So, it’s like, okay, this is what America has been for 250 years. What can we look to for the future?”

–Siyon Kim